How to Become a Professional Poker Player

02/21/2012

By Doris Molenaar
Who doesn’t dream of traveling the world, making millions, and becoming famous by playing a game they love?

So how do you do it? Well, I don’t really know. My poker skills are rather limited: when I hear the term “Rake” I think of one of those comb-like things you use to gather leaves, and similarly for the word “bumhunter,” someone who refuses to play against winning players would be about the last thing that comes to mind. But I do want to help you out with your dreams, so for such life questions I find Yahoo answers.

Like, “i cant give u an advice about being a proffesional in this game.. but the advice that i can give is to stay away from it coz no matter how good u r in it u will stay a loser beleive me no one wins in this game,” says Yahoo answerer Nora 7. Thanks, but that’s no help at all.

Some useful information that I did gather however, are the following 8 points:

Play a lot! Whenever you’re not working practice those poker skills! Start off by playing only with play money, if your wins are steady then start using real money.
Read and study professional poker player books. There are so many strategies involved in poker you could never fully teach yourself. Learn from the pros!
Save money and learn bankroll management.
Know your competition and learn from them. This can be tricky when you play online as opposed to in a casino, but always watch closely and learn from how others play.
Always take time to make a good decision – never let emotions take control over your actions
Keep a log of your play, how much you win and how much you lose and see if you win on a consistent basis.
Know yourself. If you want to become a professional you need to know your flaws, and try to improve them.
Have a back-up plan. If this worked for everyone we would all be professional poker players, like Nora 7 said, a lot of people only lose from this game.

Good luck now! I hope this helped.

To see the best professional poker players at work watch Epic Poker, Friday at 10pm, Only on Velocity